Press Room

Jimmy Marohn, Jr. had a big year in the sulky in 2012. The diminutive reinsman scored his first ever driving title at Monticello Raceway when he finished the season with 271 wins, some 15 better than runner-up Billy “Zeke” Parker’s 256.

Earlier this year, during the summer meet at Tioga Downs, Marohn raked -in his second consecutive dash-win title there and now after garnering the Mighty M crown one wonders how long it’ll be before he moves on to the bigger offerings at the racetracks in metropolitan New York.

After racing in the afternoon of Monday, December 31 Monticello Raceway will commence its 56th season of live harness racing on New Year’s Day, Tuesday, January 1, 2013 and programs will follow on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday that week.
After the Friday card of January 4 it will be back to the normal four- day-a-week schedule of Mondays through Thursdays, with one exception; the raceway will be dark on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Monday, January 21.
All post times during the month of January will be at 12:25pm.

After the calmest of early winter seasons in the southern Catskill Mountains a heavy snowstorm on Wednesday, December 26 ,which carried over to the following day, played havoc on the racing program at Monticello Raceway on Thursday.

After again running another successful awards banquet in late November the Monticello-Goshen Chapter of U.S. Harness Writers donated $3000 to Historic Track at their monthly Board Meeting on December 19. The presentation of the check was made to Bernie White, President of Historic Track‘s Board of Directors by John Manzi, the chapter’s banquet chairman..

That donation will to be matched and the National Historic Landmark will actually end-up with $6,000.

Bruce Aldrich Jr. has picked up where he left off. After spending most of the year at his new home track, Saratoga Raceway, Aldrich has returned full time—at least while the Spa City oval is closed—to the Monticello Raceway where he won more races than any other driver during the first decade of the 21st Century.
At the Mighty M on Tuesday, December 18 Bruce Aldrich, Jr. scored his second consecutive five-bagger. The previous day he also won five races.

Nowadays, final race times don’t really underscore the class of those horses competing. It seems that every race goes fast these days; be it a high priced claimer or a conditioned horse. Even the lesser class claimers put up times that FFA (Free-For-All) horses turned in decades ago.
So with the aforementioned in mind handicappers will have to make a decision in Monticello Raceway’s 1-3/4 mile Marathon Trot which will go to post in race number four on Wednesday afternoon, December 19. Will class hold up in this long distance race?